Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 220 / Thursday, November 16, 2023 / Notices 78801 

1The $78 per hour figure for clerical staff time is 

from SIFMA’s Office Salaries in the Securities 

Industry 2013, modified by Commission staff to 

account for an 1,800-hour work-year and inflation, 

and multiplied by 2.93 to account for bonuses, firm 

size, employee benefits and overhead. 

requiring suitability determinations per 

year. We also estimate that a brokerdealer would take approximately onehalf hour per new customer in 

obtaining, reviewing, and processing 

(including transmitting to the customer) 

the information required by Rule 15g–9, 

and each respondent would 

consequently spend 78 hours annually 

(156 new customers × .5 hours) 

obtaining the information required in 

the Rule. This would result in 27,300 

annual responses per year for all 

respondents (175 respondents × 156 

new customer suitability determinations 

per year). We determined, based on the 

estimate of 175 broker-dealer 

respondents, that the annual hour 

burden of Rule 15g–9 is 13,650 hours 

(175 respondents × 78 hours). 

The broker-dealer must keep the 

written suitability determination and 

customer agreement required by the 

Rule for at least three years. Completing 

the suitability determination and 

obtaining the customer agreement in 

writing is mandatory for broker-dealers 

who effect transactions in penny stocks 

and do not qualify for an exemption, but 

does not involve the collection of 

confidential information. 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor, and a person is not required to 

respond to, a collection of information 

under the PRA unless it displays a 

currently valid OMB control number. 

The public may view background 

documentation for this information 

collection at the following website: 

www.reginfo.gov. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent by 

December 18, 2023 to (i) 

www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain 

and (ii) David Bottom, Director/Chief 

Information Officer, Securities and 

Exchange Commission, c/o John 

Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, Washington, 

DC 20549, or by sending an email to: 

PRA_Mailbox@sec.gov. 

Dated: November 13, 2023. 

Sherry R. Haywood, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2023–25355 Filed 11–15–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[SEC File No. 270–096, OMB Control No. 

3235–0151] 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request; Extension: Rule 

17Ac3–1(a) and Form TA–W 

Upon Written Request, Copies Available 

From: Securities and Exchange 

Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 

100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 

20549–2736 

Notice is hereby given that, pursuant 

to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

(‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(‘‘OMB’’) a request for approval of 

extension of the previously approved 

collection of information provided for in 

Rule 17Ac3–1(a) (17 CFR 240.17Ac3– 

1(a)) and Form TA–W (17 CFR 

249b.101), under the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et 

seq.). 

Section 17A(c)(4)(B) of the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 

78c(a)(34)(B) authorizes transfer agents 

registered with an appropriate 

regulatory agency (‘‘ARA’’) to withdraw 

from registration by filing with the ARA 

a written notice of withdrawal and by 

agreeing to such terms and conditions as 

the ARA deems necessary or 

appropriate in the public interest, for 

the protection of investors, or in the 

furtherance of the purposes of Section 

17A. 

In order to implement Section 

17A(c)(4)(B) of the Exchange Act, the 

Commission promulgated Rule 17Ac3– 

1(a) and accompanying Form TA–W on 

September 1, 1977. Rule 17Ac3–1(a) 

provides that notice of withdrawal of 

registration as a transfer agent with the 

Commission shall be filed on Form TA– 

W. Form TA–W requires the 

withdrawing transfer agent to provide 

the Commission with certain 

information, including: (1) the locations 

where transfer agent activities are or 

were performed; (2) the reasons for 

ceasing the performance of such 

activities; (3) disclosure of unsatisfied 

judgments or liens; and (4) information 

regarding successor transfer agents. 

The Commission uses the information 

disclosed on Form TA–W to determine 

whether the registered transfer agent 

applying for withdrawal from 

registration as a transfer agent should be 

allowed to deregister and, if so, whether 

the Commission should attach to the 

granting of the application any terms or 

conditions necessary or appropriate in 

the public interest, for the protection of 

investors, or in furtherance of the 

purposes of Section 17A of the 

Exchange Act. Without Rule 17Ac3–1(a) 

and Form TA–W, transfer agents 

registered with the Commission would 

not have a means to voluntarily 

deregister it is necessary or appropriate 

to do so. 

On average, respondents have filed 

approximately 50 Form TA–Ws with the 

Commission annually from 2020 to 

2023. A Form TA–W filing occurs only 

once, when a transfer agent is seeking 

deregistration. In view of the readily 

available information requested by Form 

TA–W, its short and simple 

presentation, and the Commission’s 

experience with the filers, we estimate 

that approximately 30 minutes is 

required to complete and file Form TA– 

W. Thus, the total annual time burden 

to the transfer agent industry is 

approximately 25 hours (50 filings × 0.5 

hours). We estimate that the internal 

labor cost of compliance per filing $39 

(0.5 hours × $78 average hourly rate for 

clerical staff time).1 Thus, the total 

internal compliance cost per year is thus 

approximately $975 (25 hours × $39 = 

$975). 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor, and a person is not required to 

respond to, a collection of information 

under the PRA unless it displays a 

currently valid OMB control number. 

The public may view background 

documentation for this information 

collection at the following website: 

www.reginfo.gov. Find this particular 

information collection by selecting 

‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’ or by using the 

search function. Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent by 

December 18, 2023 to 

(i) www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain and (ii) David Bottom, 

Director/Chief Information Officer, 

Securities and Exchange Commission, 

c/o John Pezzullo, 100 F Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20549, or by sending an 

email to: PRA_Mailbox@sec.gov. 

Dated: November 13, 2023. 

Sherry R. Haywood, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2023–25362 Filed 11–15–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 


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